Subline imprint

FoolsWalmart's buying agents every single time.

Asubline imprintis a partialrebrandingof afranchise—typically with a secondary title reflecting a theme or gimmick running through the entire franchise.

Examples includeBattle for the SparkduringBeast MachinesandAllSpark Powerforthe 2007 movie line.The US airings of the second season of theBeast Machinescartoonwere re-titled to feature the subline imprint—though not the Canadian or UK versions, nor any of the DVDs—while theAllspark Powertoys occupy a looseumbrella storywhich occurs after the events of the movie.

Subline imprints feature either partial or major changes to the packaging design in order to make the product stand out from the previous "standard" releases. Sometimes, existing product will be re-released in subsequent waves as a running change variant in altered packaging alongside the new product in order to achieve a homogenous packaging style within a case.

In addition, there are occasionally store-exclusive"themes" with their own unique branding and packaging design that follow the same basic concept as the aforementioned type of subline imprints, except they don't affect the general retail assortments.

Game Theory

Bulk purchasing agents find re-hashed merchandise more attractive offered under a subline imprint.

Purchasing agents known as "buyers" make purchasing decisions for hundreds of American retail stores, making their best guess what products will sell and how many while trying to avoid being stuck with the dreaded "old product" (unsold toys) when the toyline ends.

Buyers purchase many toys from early waves reasoning that even if the toyline flops these will selleventuallyover the line's (hopeful) year-to-eighteen-month "lifetime." Toys in laterwaves(eight-ish) represent a higher risk because they have only a six-month window to sell, and tend not to be purchased as heavily. As a result, toy companies spend less money developing later waves, often heavily featuringredecosandretools,making them evenlessattractive to retailers.

For their part, consumers try to avoid purchasing the pegwarmers and shelfwarmers left over as a toyline winds down, but lacking the encyclopedic product knowledge known only to buyers,fans,and small children, they learn to suspiciously avoid any packaging they recognize from thelastbirthday/Christmas/Kwaanza etc. (again making later-wave toys less attractive to retailers.)

A subline imprint refreshes the packaging for consumers (orange may become bright green in the same layout) while assuring the regional buyers that "No, seriously, this is anewtoyline, you should purchase it more heavily! "Buyers aren't particularlyfooledby this argument, but the re-branding is understood to be a sign that the toy companies have invested in these tail-end waves rather than filled them with junk, making larger retailer purchases a safer investment.

Pre-dating the modern subline imprint scheme

The Transformers

The mother of all sublines!

Though not only predating the modern concept of a "subline imprint" by a decade, but also predating the concept of individualfranchiseswithin theTransformersbranditself by a few years, the final two years of theoriginal toyline's US run had the entire lineup cleanly divided into two sublines per year, each with its own title built around a commongimmick(listed below). Early Micromaster Patrols even sported their own unique logo (with the older name "Micro Transformers") on their packaging, as did theAction Masters.This thematic streamlining of the brand was also reflected in the officialcatalogsincluded with the toys, which up to that point had always featured an "Autobot" and a "Decepticon" side, but for those two years used those sublines as the major division line between the two catalog sides instead.

• 1989:PretendersandMicromasters
• 1990:MicromastersandAction Masters

Themostly European-only continuation of the lineaddedClassicsfor 1990 as well, and maintained the streamlined nature of the line withAction MastersandClassicsin1991,though the latter had no actual official name unlike the aforementioned three (but still featured a common packaging design that visually distinguished them from the concurrently availableAction Masterspackaging).

Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers

Similarly, in theJapanese Generation 1 toyline,Takara split all of the figures based under a certain gimmick orsubgroupinto their own uniquely branded boxes, starting with the1986toys which had the twoCity Commanders,the twocitiesthemselves, and all four of the originalcombinerteams branded under "Scramble City"to coincide with the"Scramble City: Mobilization"OVA which (vaguely) advertised the sublines' gimmicks. The"Scramble City"branding would then continue on into1987withComputronandAbominus,who also utilized the same combining gimmick. From 1987 to1990,all of the gimmick and subgroup-based figures featured their own unique subline branding (listed below), but all figures that didn't fit into these categories were just sold in regularFight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers-branded packaging.

The backs of the boxes from the latter half of 1986–onwards also featured the logos of the cartoons/sub-franchises they weremade to advertiseabove the "space battle" artwork, adding an extra layer of sublines that these aforementioned sublines split out from as the years went on. These started with the "Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010"logo, which was placed on the back of the boxes relating to the characters that appeared in the third season of the G1 cartoon, and weren't already released prior without subline branding or"Scramble City"branding. So basically: the City Commanders; the cities; the four original combiners; theMini Vehicles(includingOutbackandPipesetc.); all of theMini-Cassettes(includingRatbatandSteeljawetc.); and the VSZ and "Goodbye" sets didn't get2010branding on the back of the packaging, but thePredacons;the four '86Triple Changers;the later-released MinibotWheelie;and the rest of the'86 movie cast members—that haven't already been mentioned here—all did.

• 1986A:Scramble City
• 1986B:2010(as mentioned above, this branding is only utilized on the back of the boxes, and doesn't indicate gimmicks or subgroups, just the overall theme of the second half of the year)
• 1987–The Headmasters:Scramble City,The Headmasters,Targetmaster,andBeastformers( "Transformers: Beastformers"split off from theFight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformersline after 1987, and was rebranded as simply "Beastformers")
• 1988–Super-God Masterforce:The Headmasters,Pretenders,Godmaster,Sparkdash,andSeacons(Despite the Seacon figures all featuring the same gimmick as the toys that were previously branded as "Scramble City",the Seacon members received their own unique branding)
• 1989–Victory:Brainmaster,Multiforce,Breastforce,Dinoforce,andCrossformer
• 1990–Zone:Micro Transformers Powered Masters,Micro TransformersandTrainbots(the individually-released reissues of the 1987 Trainbot figures all gained branding that was absent during their initial releases)

By1991,a line-wide shake up was made, uniting the line as a whole by keepingonlythe yearly subline titles, and removing all gimmick and subgroup-based branding, starting with theReturn of Convoysubline, which followed through to the subsequentOperation Combinationsubline in1992,finishing out theFight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformerstoyline on a united front.

Subline imprints forTransformersseries

"Refresh" of ongoing general retail assortments

Fooled again… and again! Told ya!

• Beast Wars:Fuzors,Transmetals,Transmetals 2,Fox KidsDeluxe,andMutants
• Beast Machines:Battle for the Spark
• Armada:The Unicron Battles
• Energon:The Powerlinx Battles
• Cybertron:Primus Unleashed
• Transformers(2007):AllSpark PowerandPremium Series
• Revenge of the Fallen:N.E.S.T. Global Alliance
• Transformers(2010):Hunt for the DecepticonsandReveal the Shield
• Dark of the Moon:Movie Trilogy Series(awfully short-lived)
• Transformers: Prime:First Edition,Robots in Disguise,andBeast Hunters
• Generations:Fall of Cybertron,Thrilling 30,Combiner Wars,Titans Return,Power of the Primes,Studio Series,War for Cybertron: Siege,War for Cybertron: Earthrise,War for Cybertron: Kingdom,Legacy,andAge of the Primes
• Robots in Disguise(2015):Mini-Con WeaponizersandCombiner Force
• Cyberverse:Power of the Spark,Battle for Cybertron,Bumblebee: Cyberverse Adventures^[1],andDinobots Unite
• Legacy:Evolution, United

TakaraTomy-only subline imprints

• Adventure:Prime of Micron

Store-exclusive "themes"

Nowthisis getting confusing.

• Dark of the Moon:Mission Earth(Toys "R" Us) andThe Scan Series(Toys "R" Us; a further subline imprintwithin"Mission Earth")
• Transformers: Prime:Dark Energon(BigBadToyStorein the United States) andBeast Hunters: Predacons Rising(Targetin the United States; another subline imprintwithina subline imprint)
• Robots in Disguise(2015):Clash of the Transformers(Toys "R" Us; initially as a separate subline imprint, later continued underMini-Con Weaponizersas another subline imprintwithina subline imprint)
• The Last Knight:Autobots Unite(Walmartin the United States),Mission to Cybertron(Toys "R" Us),Reveal the Shield(Target and technically also Toys "R" Us in the United States)
• Bumblebee:Bumblebee Greatest Hits(Target in the United States)
• Generations:35th Anniversary(Walmart in the United States and Canada; a further subline imprint withinWar for Cybertron: Siege)

Cross-series "themes"

• Cybertronian Villains:Target-exclusive imprint withinCyberverse: Battle for CybertronandBumblebee: Cyberverse Adventures,andWar for Cybertron: Earthrise(all of which are already subline imprints of their own)
• Buzzworthy Bumblebee:Target-exclusive imprint withinWar for Cybertron Trilogy,Studio Series,LegacyandCyberverse

Notes

• TheAge of Extinctionline also had a theme of redecoed "Silver Knight" Optimus Prime figures that were all exclusive toTargetstores in the United States, but since they don't have their own logo and/or unique packaging design, they don't constitute a proper subline imprint.

See also

• Co-branding
• Multi-brand assortment
• Rebranding

References